Fenrus vs Homepage
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Fenrus
Personal home page with smart app widgets
VS
Homepage
Fast, file-configured application dashboard
| Feature | Fenrus | Homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 98 · Excellent |
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 790 | ★ 32,822 |
| First released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Heimdall |
What are Fenrus and Homepage?
Fenrus
Fenrus is a personal home page and dashboard for organizing applications with live widgets and per-user dashboards. It targets households wanting individual customized start pages. It is deployed via Docker.
- Per-user dashboards
- Smart app widgets
- Built-in search engines
- Guest and personal modes
Homepage
Homepage is a highly customizable application dashboard configured via YAML files, with Docker and service integrations. It targets users who like config-as-code start pages. It is deployed via Docker.
- YAML-based configuration
- Docker auto-discovery
- Hundreds of service widgets
- Very fast and lightweight
Fenrus vs Homepage: key differences
Both projects are written in JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Fenrus versus GPL-3.0 for Homepage. Homepage is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Fenrus. Homepage has the considerably larger community, at 32,822 GitHub stars versus 790.
Why pick each one
Choose Fenrus if…
- Multi-user dashboards
- Live app data
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Fewer integrations
Choose Homepage if…
- Config as code
- Lightweight and fast
- Tons of widgets
Watch out for
- No web-based editing
- Editing YAML can intimidate
Frequently asked questions
Is Fenrus or Homepage better?
Neither is universally better. Homepage has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Fenrus and Homepage free and open-source?
Yes. Fenrus is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Homepage under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fenrus and Homepage with Docker?
Fenrus: yes. Homepage: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Fenrus or Homepage?
Homepage has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Fenrus. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.